But Zoya is a straightforward and generous person, and Chu Nian sincerely hopes that she can be with the person she loves.
Zhao Feiyan said with some worry, "Sister, given Young Master Lan's background, he definitely won't marry into Xiwan, and it's very likely that he'll take a concubine after marrying his first wife..."
Chu Nian: "If the matter of taking a concubine is related to the diplomatic issues between the two countries, such as a marriage alliance, then it is not a big deal. We can rest assured about that. The Grand Tutor is a man who can distinguish between what is important and what is not. In my opinion, the key is whether the princess and Young Master Lan are in love with each other, and whether they are willing to leave their homeland for each other."
Zoya snorted, "I'm worried that if I, with my simple mind, were to marry into your Eastern Chu Kingdom, I would be caught up in the scheming and manipulative nature of the people of Eastern Chu, and I wouldn't even know how I died."
Chu Nian chuckled and said, "You can rest assured that you thought of this. You're not someone who can be easily tricked to death."
Zoya snorted again, pursed her lips, and clearly doubted her words.
The three girls got along quite well in the room. Although Zoya said she didn't believe Chu Nian and the others, and she was initially quite reluctant to be schemed against by Chu Nian, she stayed in the room chatting with Chu and Zhao until midnight before coming out.
The attendants outside were already pacing around like ants on a hot pan.
Zoya still didn't completely trust Chu Nian and Zhao Feiyan, but she was suspicious of them both, and even less so of someone like Yang Jie. So as soon as she returned to the inn, she told her elder brother, Du Lin, about Yang Jie's lecherous behavior, expressing her concern that he might harm them.
Du Lin had lived in the Western Wan Kingdom's palace for over twenty years. As the crown prince, he had naturally experienced a lot of intrigue and power struggles. After the banquet incident, he had already begun to secretly guard against Yang Jie.
"By the way, where did you go? Why are you so late?" Dulin asked, a little helplessly. This younger sister of his had been spoiled by their father since childhood and was quite willful. But she was also his only sister, so even though he was helpless, he still loved Zoya dearly.
Upon hearing this, Zoya quickly gave a vague reply: "I just went for a stroll in the streets, I didn't go anywhere." She dared not let her elder brother know that she had gone to a brothel. The attendants were all her trusted subordinates, and they dared not casually tell her elder brother.
Dulin looked at her suspiciously, but said nothing more.
Zoya returned to her room. It was already late. With the help of her trusted maid, she quickly finished washing up and lay down on the bed. However, she couldn't help but keep thinking about what Chu Nian and Zhao Feiyan had told her.
She was a little worried that her elder brother hadn't been on high enough alert. After thinking it over, she had a palace maid summon a trusted warrior and gave him instructions on how to do this and that.
The next morning, just as Dulin got up and left his room, one of Zoya's confidants rushed back from outside and asked in surprise, "Where have you been so early? You didn't sneak off to a brothel to have some fun behind your master's back!"
Nazoya's confidante quickly replied, "Your Highness, the princess got up early this morning and said she wanted to know what the people of Dongchu usually eat for breakfast. To put it bluntly, she just wanted to try the food here, so she ordered me to go out and buy some early this morning." As she spoke, she held up the food box in her hand.
Du Lin paused for a moment, then asked, "Did you only buy one?"
Zoya's confidante chuckled and said, "Your Highness, the princess said she doesn't know if there's anything wrong with these breakfasts. She needs to taste them first before deciding whether to give them to you. So, I'm truly sorry about today's breakfast. However, I suppose you'll have them tomorrow. Everyone in Dongchu eats this breakfast; what could be wrong with it? The princess is just being cautious because she cares about Your Highness! Please bear with it for today!" With that, she hurried off to Zoya's room with the food box.
Watching his hurried figure, Du Lin was a little puzzled: This cautious style was nothing like his energetic and playful sister!
After knocking on Zoya's door, Zoya's trusted warrior was let in by the palace maid inside. Once the maid closed the door, he casually put down the food box, let out a long sigh, and wiped the sweat from his brow, still looking shaken.
Sitting on the bed, Zoya was still a little shaken and said, "Well done, Tianxuan, you're getting smarter and smarter."
The warrior called Tianxuan gave a wry smile.
Zoya glanced at the food box on the ground and asked, "Is there really breakfast in here?"
Tianxuan said in a low voice, "Princess, please don't make fun of me. This food box was given to me by a beggar outside the post station."
"A beggar?" Lingxiang, a trusted palace maid serving nearby, said in surprise.
Zoya's eyelids twitched, and she said, "Did that speech you gave to my older brother just now also come from that beggar?"
Tianxuan: "That's right! He said, if I run into someone after entering the inn, and they ask me why I went out so early and what I was doing, how am I supposed to answer? At the time, I thought this beggar was dirty and smelly, so I kept my distance. Who knew that another beggar would come out from some corner..."
After recounting how he was "instructed" by the beggar outside the door, he added, "I recalled the time when the princess asked me to go out and ask the beggars all over the Eastern Chu Kingdom in the middle of the night, and then it dawned on me: most of the beggars here are managed by one person."
Zoya asked, "Why do you think that?"
Tianxuan: "The questions you asked me to ask were all similar to what I had to say. But because their answers differed slightly, I didn't think they belonged to the same organization. But when I met those beggars outside the inn, I realized something was wrong."
Zoya: "So, what did the beggars say about what I asked you to inquire about?" She finally understood that all the beggars in the capital of Dongchu Kingdom had probably been controlled by Chu Nian long ago.
Tianxuan: "The banquet hosted by the Eastern Chu Kingdom for our Western Wan Kingdom envoys will certainly not be a one-time event. I heard that the emperor also wants to take us hunting. Yang Jie has already made connections at the hunting grounds and wants to use the hunting opportunity to stage a scene where the princess takes a liking to him and insists on throwing herself at him. In this way, the claim that Yang Jie harassed and frivolously flirted with the princess will be refuted."
Lingxiang asked in bewilderment, "Our princess is throwing herself at him? How is that possible?"
Tianxuan: "This... there are many medicines available. For example, there is a medicine that can make the princess mistake Yang Jie for her lover, called honey medicine. Yang Jie has already ordered it to be prepared."
Lingxiang gritted her teeth and said, "How can this person be so shameless?" She turned her head and saw Zoya pondering, and said, "Princess, we can't let that villain succeed."
Zoya then said, "Tianxuan, since you've already concluded that those beggars are under the same person's command, isn't it very likely that what they say is fabricated by that person and may not be true?"
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